Influences of interfacial phenomena on the fluid dynamics and mass transfer of single droplets in micellar liquid/liquid systems

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.

To improve reaction rates and separation processes of catalysed reactions smart solvent systems can be applied. One example for smart solvent systems are micellar liquid/liquid systems. Here, amphiphilic molecules (surfactants) are used as additives. Due to their structure these molecules will adsorb at interfaces where they influence the occurring transport processes which have a huge impact on the yield and selectivity of chemical reactions. To gain a better fundamental understanding of the occurring transport processes this work focuses on transport processes in micellar liquid/liquid systems. The results of this work show that other interfacial phenomena than “just” adsorption processes have to be taken into consideration for the description of the observed transport processes. Otherwise, the mass transport will be over estimated.